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market-farming - RE: [Market-farming] Earthworm Regeneration

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  • From: "David Inglis" <mhcsa AT bcn.net>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Earthworm Regeneration
  • Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 22:52:28 -0400

The earthworm will regenerate but only from one part, I forget which, therefore, at best, you could only hope to end up with the same number.

I would argue that the principle negative effect of tillage on earthworms over the long term is to reduce numbers by burning up their food source. This will also create the need for more tillage and render the soil less resilient to that tillage. Nature has a cure for this but we don’t like it; it’s called erosion. Food is the limiting factor for most earthworm populations which is why the spreading of earthworm eggs has little effect on long term populations. I have never seen an agricultural system that increases earthworm numbers that does not also increase or at least reduce the consumption of their food source; soil organic matter. Glaciated areas have fewer species numbers but the total population will depend on other factors. So once again we return to the oft heard but seldom acted upon adage “feed the soil”.

Be well..

 

David A. Inglis
Mahaiwe Harvest C.S.A.

Massachusetts

 

-----Original Message-----
From:
market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Juliet Henry
Sent:
Wednesday, May 12, 2004 1:39 PM
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [Market-farming] Earthworm Regeneration

 

Hi,

Something that I learnt in Biology at school many years ago: chopping up of earthworms may not be as bad as it seems.  I believe that earthworms are able to reproduce asexually from fragments and that this is called Regeneration.  So tilling should not destroy your earthworms, but rather increase the number - not that I'm advocating going out and chopping all your earthworms up :-) !

 

Regards,

Juliet

 

In reply to:


Date:
Tue, 11 May 2004 14:23:07 -0400
From: Robert Farr - The Chile Man <rbfarr AT erols.com>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Re: Planting and Managing 3 Acres of
vegetables

...
Tillers destroy to soil structure, disturb (or kill) the microorganisms, chop up the earthworms (and earthworm castings are the *best* fertilizer you can find), ...


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